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Journalists boycotting Russian Duma over #metoo allegations

Slutsky in 2016. Photo: Alexander Shalgin\TASS via Getty Images

More than a dozen Russian news outlets, including three national newspapers, are boycotting the Russian parliament after the Ethics Committee declined to sanction Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the International Affairs Committee, for alleged sexual harassment. The decision came despite allegations from four journalists that he'd sexually harassed them, including a BBC reporter who recorded his unwanted advances.

Why it matters: This is the first massive sexual harassment scandal in Russia since the Weinstein allegations, and the act of solidarity by journalists is unprecedented, according to Ivan Kolpakov, editor-in-chief of Meduza. "This looks like the beginning of something huge," he tells Axios.